NHS: Drugs

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the (a) total NHS expenditure on medicines and (b)NHS spending per head on medicines has been in each year since 1997-98 (i) for England and (ii) broken down by strategic health authority area.

The following tables give total national health service expenditure on medicines since 1997-98 and is broken down by (a) primary care and (b) the hospital and community health service (HCHS).

Primary care medicines expenditure is the total actual cost of drugs and appliances prescribed by general practitioners/nurses within England plus any central budget expenditure or locally authorised payments.

HCHS expenditure on drugs includes medical gases.

The Department does not publish the drugs bill on a per capita basis. The per capita figures have been derived from Office of National Statistics mid-year total population estimates for England, and do not take into account age related demand for drugs.

A times-series breakdown by strategic health authority (SHA) area is not available as this data are not collated by SHA centrally.

2. The total drugs spend include drugs expenditure in primary care and the HCHS. The primary care expenditure reflects amounts paid to pharmacy and appliance contractors and amounts authorised for dispending doctors and personal administration in England. HCHS expenditure includes drugs and medical gases.

3. From 2000-01 figures are in resource terms, prior to this figures are in cash terms. Cash figures relate to February to January prescribing due to delay in prescription processing and payment calculations. Resource figures represent the actual cost between April to March.

Sources:

Prescription pricing division of the NHS Business Services Authority, England and Department of Health Finance Division.